In the little white ranch house where my mom, sister, and I lived after we moved to Pittsburgh when I was a kid, we had a patio bordered by a vegetable garden. It must have once been a mix of herbs and maybe other vegetables - a strawberry or two popped through sometimes - but when we were there, it was totally overrun by mint. A couple times, we ripped it out, but it always came roaring back. All we could do was give in.
There are parts of my brain that are like this. I think this is true for all of us. And sometimes, instead of fighting it, I think it’s helpful to just lean in to those wild obsessions.
(This is not mint. But bamboo is similarly tenacious and it grows back on the path every spring.)
Prompt #21: like wild mint
Look at the poems you’ve written so far this month. What trends do you notice? What words reappear? What images keep coming back? Do you find anything that surprises you? You can also look back at your poetry deck or old notebooks and drafts. Pick one or more images or words you’re surprised to see repeated, or whose repetition interests you.
For each of those words or images, write into them in as much detail as you can. List all the synonyms or related words you can think of, then see if you can find more. Freewrite to generate more images or scenes related to your words or images. If a target helps you, aim to fill three pages.
Write your poem using as many of those synonyms, images, and scenes as interest you. If you want a place to get started, work from the negative, fill in the blanks however you like: It’s not the _____ that compells me, it’s the _______
Sharing your work helps sustain momentum. I’ll leave the comments open, so you can share a poem title, a snippet of a line, or something else about your writing life. I’m also on twitter (@nancy_reddy) and instagram (@nancy.o.reddy), if you want to check in there.